The Four Points That Really Inspired Me from Show Your Work by Austin Kleon

How you can grow an audience in a non-icky way.

If you’re an online creative and struggling with either burnout (like me), lack of motivation (also me), ‘what is the pointness’ (yes, okay like me) and just feeling ugh (no comment) about having to build an online presence in order to market your work then may I suggest you start reading Show Your Work by Austin Kleon.

I love to read non-fiction about creativity and being online. In fact, that’s in part what my own non-fiction proposal is about. But I often find non-fiction overwhelming, sometimes repetitive (I’m listening to The Five Second Rule by Mel Robbins and so far, four chapters in, there is a lot of saying the same thing over and over) or conversely too dense with information in an off-putting way.

Show Your Work is a short book with lots of blank space, that takes a simple idea - how can you get your creative work noticed, and tackles it in a straightforward way.

No figuring out un-figure-out-able algorithms, no salesy tactics or begging people to follow you (chapter seven is titled ‘Don’t turn into human spam’) and no signing up to webinars to reveal all the secrets. Austin is nothing but generous with his information.

First published in 2014, the book's ideas are probably over a decade old. However, the online world is very different from ten years ago. Back then Facebook and Twitter were at the toddler stage, Instagram had no algorithms and we all saw the people we followed in a chronological feed. Ah, the good old days. TikTok was just a twinkle and video in the form of reels was not a thing.

The audience has changed, too. Twitter now has lots of angry, shouty people. Many creatives have taken a hobby and turned it into a business wearing their cute entrepreneurial hats. Blogs and longer-form content are not as popular (or so we’re told) as our attention spans have shortened considerably. And after spending years and years building an audience only to see the algorithms restrict our reach many of us are fatigued and disillusioned.

Show Your Work, despite being a decade old, can help with that.

The book is simple, honest, and straightforward. It takes us back to basics. What is it we want? We want our creative work to be seen. How do we do that without burning out and without being caught up in algorithm drama? Well, through the ten ways Austin Kleon suggests.

Reading through the book a number of years after I first read it I found I identified with certain sections this time more than I did before. But there were four points Austin made that had a big impact on this re-read just as much as they did the first time. My problem was, I simply got so distracted by the noise in the wild west of the internet that I forgot the basics. I also forgot to trust my gut, my creative instincts and started to do what I thought I should do instead of gently plodding along, sharing my work, at my own pace.

Point #1

The first piece of wisdom comes from the very first pages of the book. Austin Kleon has written the book because creatives were coming to him and saying:

“How do I get my stuff out there? How do I get noticed? How do I find an audience? How did you do it?”

Now, if you asked this question to an online guru they’d probably say:

Get on TikTok, create reels that are x seconds long, and use trending music (or something like that). And yes, there is something in that advice. But that is getting specific when you haven’t even thought about what you want to share. You have to zoom out. Think broader.

As an answer, Austin quotes the comedian and actor Steve Martin:

“Be so good they can’t ignore you.”

But, it’s not just about being good.

“In order to be found, you have to be findable.”

It’s not just being good and being findable either, though. Austin advocates sharing your work online whilst you continue with your core work. You are creating your art and building an audience at the same time.

“…consistently posting bits and pieces of their work, their ideas and what they’re learning online.”

As I’ve written at the top of page 2:

Be good: Be findable: Share: Get really good. Get better as you share and become findable.

If you hate the thought of promoting your work once you’ve completed your project then sharing your work during the course of your project using the online tools we have at our disposal is the perfect alternative. You’re not creating lots of extra work. Simply sharing pictures or videos of your work in progress, sharing your inspirations, books that have helped you (like I’m doing right now!) a few thoughts you’ve had in your journal, what your desk looks like at different points in the day.

There’s no need to create something brand new for an audience (like I used to do on Instagram - God, this took HOURS of my life). Share what you’re working on right now. That’s it.

“Share what you love, and the people who love the same thing will find you.”

Point #2

In Chapter Two, Think Process, Not Product, Austin writes:

Become a documentarian of what you do.

So simple. So genius.

Austin uses the example of Chris Hadfield the astronaut from the International Space Station. Chris hit upon the idea of sharing what life was like on the space station via Twitter. (This was 2013, remember when this was a new thing). People were glued to their Twitter streams and would watch them do basic tasks such as plumbing - simply because it was on the Space Station and people were invested in their lives.

Now, you’re probably thinking - you’re ‘just’ a writer, or a painter, or a photographer, or a knitter - that what you do is far too hum-drum - who would be interested?

“Whatever the nature of your work, there is an art to what you do, and there are people who would be interested in that art, if only you presented it to them in the right way.”

When I was on YouTube a lot more than I am currently I’d receive comments from others saying how they loved to watch me write. It either gave them peace after a stressful day or inspired them to pick up a pen themselves.

On TikTok people watch timelapses of others cleaning filthy rugs so there is definitely a market for timelapses of you doodling, writing, knitting or whatever. We like to see progress. On reality shows like Strictly Come Dancing or The Great British Bake Off we love to watch a contestant get better and better over time. We become invested in their ‘journey’. And I think this is why audiences enjoy watching the behind-the-scenes of artists. The journey word is definitely overused in modern times but that’s because we love a positive one.

On social media, there are many ways in which you can document your creative journey. Podcasting, YouTube, photography, videography, creating a Substack. My own Substack is a way of me collecting stories about my own creative life or the lives of others, things that inspire me as I write, my accomplishments and the tiny steps as I go. My non-fiction book - whether that ends up being traditionally or independently published takes time to write so sharing these snippets as I go helps me record my progress and build an audience at the same time.

As Austin says, “documenting and recording your process as you go along has its own rewards: You’ll start to see the work you’re doing more clearly and feel like you’re making progress.”

I’d like to add to that. When you can see you’re making progress you create momentum. And with momentum comes increased confidence.

In the sidebar of the page (above photo) I wrote:

Create. Document. Share. See progress. Create momentum. See your increased confidence. Repeat and keep moving forward in tiny steps.

This helps significantly with the slow growth of an audience. You’re not just sharing and documenting to gain an audience. You’re doing it for you. To see your progress, to establish ideas, to communicate these ideas with others and have someone share their ideas back to you, and to increase your confidence. Audience building almost becomes secondary and certainly, this approach takes the pressure off the numbers.

Point #3

Point number three is very short and very simple.

“Don’t let sharing your work take precedence over actually doing your work.”

I did this for a number of years. It set me back no end. It reduced my confidence, made me feel like a failure and that I was wasting time. Time I didn’t have.

Please, don’t fall into that trap. There is a difference between being an influencer and being a creative who uses the online space to grow an audience by sharing their work. For a while, I was acting like an influencer and forgot I was a writer.

An influencer creates content for the internet.

A creative (writers, artists, photographers etc) write books, create paintings, take photographs etc. And records this process to share on the internet.

Much of the advice to grow online is from the influencer perspective and can take the writer/artist/photographer creative massively off course. That’s why this book by Austin Kleon is GOLD.

Point #4

In Chapter Three, Share Something Small Every Day, Austin advocates ‘turning your flow into stock’. This has to be one of my favourite ideas - ever.

“Flow is the feed. It’s the posts and the tweets. It’s the stream of daily and sub-daily updates that remind people you exist. Stock is the durable stuff. It’s the content you produce that’s as interesting in two months (or two years) as it is today.”

- Robin Sloan quoted in Show Your Work

And this is where Auston Kleon is a writer after my own heart. He writes about social media being like a notebook, albeit a public one.

“But the thing about keeping notebooks is that you have to revisit them in order to make the most out of them.”

Just like my physical notebooks where I make notes and insert post-its to bring thoughts and ideas together, your social media also provides clues and links to something that may well become stock.

My small weekly posts about food in fiction on a blog back in 2011/2012 gained the interest of a literary agent and I set about turning it into a book proposal. My posts about my fears around creativity have become this Substack, a membership club and an almost completed, almost ready-for-submission book proposal. And the ideas from my notebooks themselves have become a workbook that I sold through my blog.

Show Your Work started out as a series of tweets. The tweets became blog posts and eventually a book. Flow became stock.

As Austin says,

“Small things, over time, can get big.”

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